Be honest: is SCing on a long trip annoying?

[buckerine]

So I love how Tesla has more or less eliminated range anxiety with their rapid buildout of SCs nationwide in the US. But I've been mapping out some long trips on evtripplanner.com. Because SCs are currently spaced so that you really can't afford to skip one (even if you have the 90D), it seems like the longest you can drive (on average) in a leg is about 2 or 2.5 hours. Then you have to stop for 30-60 minutes.

For those who've done significant long distance trips, doesn't this get tiring/annoying? Compare it to an ICE car where you could literally go 4-5 hours without stopping (and maybe more) if you wanted to.

 

[idoco]

Zero problem. Even in an ICE I'm stopping every three hours to stretch legs and use bathroom. By the time you grab coffee and use bathroom you have enough charge for the next leg.

 

[Tjhappel]

To me after the first one 40 minute stop it gets annoying. I personally like to drive for long stretches at a time. If we travel with the kids amd it's more than 350 miles we won't take the tesla due to the stopping. It doesn't always match up with naps and needed stops etc.. A true 400 mile range on a tesla would change things dramatically for us.

Love my car for everything else, best car we've owned by far.

 

[kort677]

for people of a certain age a rest stop every 2-3 hours is most welcome.
ymmv

 

[Barry]

Not at all. I find it refreshingly civilized. Stopping every 2-3 hours to stretch, relieve yourself, get a snack, etc. is a good thing. If you're so pressed for time on a long trip, fly and deal with the airport hassles.

 

[Canuck]

For my wife, yes. For me, no. I actually look forward to the stops but really it's all about your nature. My wife is like an energizer
bunny and she hates to slow down for anything. I take things more easy and laid back. I stop twice most weekends at the Hope BC Supercharger, going to and from my cabin, and going to the Blue Moose coffee house has become part of my weekend ritual -- it's so much better than the old gas station stops. Longer, yes, but much better.

 

[Owner]

Generally not too much.

The only thing at times I do find a bit less than ideal is I often want to stop and have lunch somewhere else. Say a local establishment (organic veggie options) away from the supercharger. The superchargers are generally well located but not always where I would ideally want them to be.

 

[Amped-Up]

So I love how Tesla has more or less eliminated range anxiety with their rapid buildout of SCs nationwide in the US. But I've been mapping out some long trips on evtripplanner.com. Because SCs are currently spaced so that you really can't afford to skip one (even if you have the 90D), it seems like the longest you can drive (on average) in a leg is about 2 or 2.5 hours. Then you have to stop for 30-60 minutes.

For those who've done significant long distance trips, doesn't this get tiring/annoying? Compare it to an ICE car where you could literally go 4-5 hours without stopping (and maybe more) if you wanted to.

I have been making a 425 mi run from northern NJ to the Outer Banks in NC about every other month. Depending upon weather (heat uses a lot more power than A/C) and speed, I can usually make only one SC stop. That's 4 hrs on each side of the charge stop. Terrain can matter as well - it's pretty flat outside of NJ. However i welcome the 1-1/2 (+/-)hr break for a meal and a stretch. I usually end up with 8-10% range remaining at either end. If I go fast (I've found that in initial projected range at 65 mph is pretty accurate), need heat or drive in heavy rain or snow, then I might need to take a 15 minute top-up at another on-route SC. Never been an issue thus far. One note, in all fairness, the eastern seaboard, as I imagine the west coast, have well developed SC networks so there's plenty of places to charge if range is looking tight.

 

[JPUConn]

Picked up my car (S85) this past Friday and took a ~400 mile road trip over the weekend to destinations that lack proper destination charging (need to install a 14-50 at my in-laws to avoid the 4mph sip next time)

The abundance of superchargers in the CT/NY/NJ area is great! One could nit-pick why the supercharger in Darien, CT is in primo spots rather than 100 ft away to allow for ICE cars to not be as motivated to take a spot.

At our hotel, the manager was kind enough to let me share the outlet with their electric golf cart at a sipping slow 2mph (9 amps / 108 v) but that added 50 miles of range over the course of our stay and allowed me to skip going back to the east brunswick nj charger that I had visited for 10 minutes earlier in the day. The supercharger availability allowed me to not really worry about plugging it in at the destination but the option was there and it was a secluded spot.

When leaving my destination for a 135 mile stretch with 185 miles of range I felt confident as the car showed 21% remaining when i reached my destination. Knowing I had several supercharger options along the route I decided to keep up with the flow of traffic on the NJ turnpike at a slow (in my mind) 70 MPH and see how far we could go. After crossing the GW Bridge it was interesting to see in the energy screen that my projected remaining at destination declined to 7%. A few miles further than a message popped up saying something to the extend of "keep under 60 mph to reach destination".

This did not bother me one bit, 3 screaming toddlers in the back seat and my wife on the look-out for a coffee afforded us the opportunity to stop at the Greenwich, CT northbound for a quick charge. This lot is incredibly busy and props to Tesla for getting 4 spots in there even if there is high ICE likelihood just due to vehicle volume in a small lot. I plugged in, gave the kids a snack, my wife grabbed an ice coffee from dunkin donuts and in just that ~10 minutes we jumped back in with 50 more miles of range than we showed up with. This additional range gave me the confidence that I could continue to drive with the flow of traffic and made it home with 43 miles left and let it charge back up over night.

Being so fortunate to have many options along the routes I frequent I am likely to continue to aim to keep my supercharger stops to 10-15 min max.

 

[taminatorv]

I think it depends on if you're in a rush to get to your destination. The last somewhat lengthy trip for me was 410 miles. With a strong head wind, I stopped at three Superchargers just to be safe. I had lunch at the first stop which took longer than charging, and the other two were for coffee and bathroom breaks. I would have only skipped the last one in an ICE car, but it didn't bother me that I did. Next month, we're doing a 1300 mile round trip. With our kids, we would stop every two or so hours anyways, so I don't anticipate it being too different to an ICE car.

 

[Krugerrand]

Be honest: is SCing on a long trip annoying?

Honestly, it's better than pushing. Just sayin'...

 

[TaoJones]

Quite the contrary. Try covering 500-1000 miles/day and finishing the day feeling refreshed in an ICE. It can be done in a Model S.

I haven't been home in a month and am tapping this from the West Yellowstone SC. No way would I want to spend this kind of time on the road in an ICE.

Long trips are easier than short ones. You can get into a rhythm. It took all of 10 minutes this morning to plan the next 4 days of travel - that's SCs and nearby lodging at the end of each day.

We used to laugh about bluewater cruising being a way to repair your yacht in exotic places. Well, now, I repair the car in unexpected places. Got a slow leak patched in Raleigh and some troubleshooting done in St. Louis. Even that's not objectionable. It all just works.

When there are problems/bugs, there's someone on the other end of the Ownership/Tech Support line. Soooo... from where I sit, the longer the trip the better. Elon promised to light up the Great Alaskan Highway, and someday soon *cough* the Supercharger Wasteland that is I-10 between Tucson/Benson and San Antonio will be finished.

There is no way I would consider this kind of travel with Level 2s or Chademo - not even with full-strength Chademo, which have proven useful along the Oregon Coast, thanks to AeroVironment. And it is true that another 50 miles of range would make some legs considerably less dicey. That said, the first ten words that I'd associate with SCing would not include "annoying", no.

 

[AEdennis]

Nope. Supercharging provides for welcome breaks in the drive.

We actually drive more than fly because driving a Tesla with supercharging is a lot more relaxing than flying or driving an ICE. (And our Model S doesn't even have Auto Pilot)

 

[deonb]

I LOVE the stop times.

I HATE the stop locations.

 

[zambono]

So I love how Tesla has more or less eliminated range anxiety with their rapid buildout of SCs nationwide in the US. But I've been mapping out some long trips on evtripplanner.com. Because SCs are currently spaced so that you really can't afford to skip one (even if you have the 90D), it seems like the longest you can drive (on average) in a leg is about 2 or 2.5 hours. Then you have to stop for 30-60 minutes.

For those who've done significant long distance trips, doesn't this get tiring/annoying? Compare it to an ICE car where you could literally go 4-5 hours without stopping (and maybe more) if you wanted to.

you can do 4 hours with a 90, I'll be able to make it to NY from DC without charging

 

[sorka]

Because SCs are currently spaced so that you really can't afford to skip one (even if you have the 90D), it seems like the longest you can drive (on average) in a leg is about 2 or 2.5 hours. Then you have to stop for 30-60 minutes.

30 to 60 minutes????? Are you charging to 100% between stops?

If you travel 150 miles between superchargers and only charge enough to reach the next charger with 10% left as a buffer, you should be able to add 150 miles of range in 20 minutes. Works that way for me and I only have a P85D with 253 rated miles.

Folks who find they are stopping for longer than that aren't optimizing their SOC range between stops.

 

[BobV]

I took a road trip back in May from Charlottesville, VA to Savannah, GA via the South Hill, Lumberton, and Santee SuperChargers, then up to Asheville, NC via Santee and Greenville, and then back home via Wytheville and Lexington. With longer trips, where the one thing I have to do in a day is to drive, the charging overhead isn't so bothersome. This is especially so when my arrival time is flexible and I can plan my charging stops to coincide with a bio-break. Stopping to charge definitely felt like a hiccup when we didn't need a bio-break and the SpC was in the back of a hotel parking lot with nothing in particular to walk to (Wytheville and Lexington). When there's a charger at a mega-mall, I could easily kill a half hour just walking from the car to the furthest points in the mall and walking back to build some kind of activity into the drive. It's the shorter half-day trips where I can realistically plan on doing something before I leave or after I arrive, but are long enough to need to make a stop-over in the middle is where I find the need to recharge irksome, whereas with my previous vehicle, I would have simply driven it as a straight shot.

Several years ago, I used to drive 650 miles, one-way, nearly non-stop, between C'Ville and the middle of Tennessee on a recurring basis. My last car, a Ford Explorer, did at least have adaptive cruise control, but the difference in fatigue levels between having AutoPilot and not is tremendous. I haven't driven that route with my Model S, but I'd gladly trade the two-hour charging overhead for the greatly reduced fatigue any day.

 

[johnnyS]

Actually supercharger trips are very interesting. The supercharger locations vary a lot. It provides opportunities to meet other people--other Tesla owners and interested people who see the car charging.

I have found a trip of 400-500 miles is about the same as a trip in a gasoline car. On a trip of that length, we stop 2-3 times just like a gasoline car. Only instead of stopping at gas stations, it could be an outlet mall, a regional mall, hotel/motel or a park (Blanding).

On longer trips that involve 5-6 supercharger stops in a day or 750 miles the day gets long but we arrive less stressed and less tired.

 

[Half Dollar Bill]

Then you have to stop for 30-60 minutes.

For those who've done significant long distance trips, doesn't this get tiring/annoying? Compare it to an ICE car where you could literally go 4-5 hours without stopping (and maybe more) if you wanted to.

We did a glorious 3 week, 9,000 trip last summer. At the end of the trip we calculated that our AVERAGE SC stop for 60+ SC's for the trip was 30 minutes, with many being just 15-20 minutes. Timing your longer charging stops with a needed meal means you don't waste time waiting for a charge.

Another benefit - we'd get to the end of a driving day, some of them were 16+ hour days, and not be tired. We'd always have energy to either explore our destination city or the surrounds where we stayed or get caught up on electronic homework.

Here's the thing - no one is born good at this kind of thing. My advice is to make a few trips where you string a couple superchargers together before taking a long-distance trip. The knowledge you gain about your car, your family and your capabilities will be incredibly valuable when planning longer distances.

 

[Max*]

I have 2 small kids, they and my wife LOVE stopping. It gives them a chance to run around, use the restroom, snack, etc.

I'm not as big of a fan of it, I prefer to drive straight through. But it's not as big of a deal as I thought it'd be. And we often drive 250-500 mile trips (family is far away, and flying with 2 kids sucks).

For me the BIGGEST annoyance is 1 SpC I need to hit when I visit the inlaws, it requires a 35-40 minute stop (the whole trip is ~7 hours driving + 1 hour 5mins SpCing). Hitting a SpC for 10-20mins is not annoying, hitting one for 35-40mins at night, when there's nothing to do is a bit of a pain, but not a deal breaker.